Parish of Mary Help of Christians

Short history

When the first group of Salesian arrived in Darkhan, there were only 4 Catholics (2 Salesian priests, our translator and our driver who were baptized in Ulaanbaatar and followed us to come here to start the mission)! We started the project of evangelization through education in Study Center and playing in Oratory.

In 2006 we got the official permission from government to start a religious point here. From then onward our evangelization became legal according to Mongolian laws. On the other hand, our bishop also officially set up a parish here called “Maria Auxilium Parish” and entrusted it to the Salesians.

At the beginning, since there were no local catholic, we had daily mass in our own small chapel, later more and more people were attracted and came to mass, we celebrated mass in one classroom; since more and more people come for mass, we brought a small old factory and changed it as our parish church.

Since the number of Catholic keep on increasing, and the old factory became a little bit small to gather the faithful, especially during big feasts; moreover the building is very old and difficult to maintain; so we decided to build a new church. With the help of benefactors, the new church was consecrated on 31st May, 2012.

Present situation

Nowadays, we have around 250 Catholics in our parish; around 20 persons come for daily mass; Saturday morning we have children mass, and around 80 persons come; Sunday we have only one mass and usually more than 100 persons come. Besides masses, we have rosary on Saturday evening after the oratory, around 30 persons participate; on Sunday evening we have Eucharistic adoration, 20 to 30 come to adore Jesus in the Holy Sacrament.

In order to make the evangelization more effective, we have to collaborate with other congregations. The MC Sisters (Missionaries of Charity) also arrived in 2006; and FMA sisters arrived on 2012, they all help the evangelization in this mission. In May of 2012, the first group of Salesian Cooperators also made their promises and started a center in Darkhan, and they have been involving actively in our parish. On the other hand we have been training a group of catechists to teach catechesis and Sunday school; and now we have around 40 studying in Sunday school and catechesis.